Trinh Tien Mui

Trinh Tien Mui, MTC Bankstown

Refugee from Vietnam – Hong Kong and then to Australia

I left Vietnam in 1978 with my husband and my two daughters on a small boat. I could not remember how many people were on the boat, but we couldn’t move and there were not enough seats. We were scared that the boat was going to turn over or sink. It was very risky.

At that time our daughters were very young, one was one year old and the other one was two years old. The journey on a small boat lasted one day until the next day when we got rescued by a big ship with plenty of other small boats in the ocean waiting to be rescued at the same time.

After the rescue, the big ship carried a total of two thousand people, arriving in Hong Kong. We stayed in a camp and we had some freedom. My husband found a job in Hong Kong and I stayed in the hut, looking after my children, shopping and cooking for my family. Sometimes we went on picnics.

We stayed in a refugee camp for three and a half years and then my sister who lived in Australia sponsored my family to come to Australia and here we are! My family feels very lucky and happy to be here and I love life. My grandchildren make me laugh when they come to visit me.